Cáel Rowe
Once just a struggling elf on the streets of Denerim, Cael has found himself dragged into the shady underworld of the city as the trusted right hand of one who many think is just an urban legend. Background Cáel was born in the Denerim’s elven Alienage. His father worked on the docks where he also took Cáel and his younger brother, Lonán, during the days while his mother worked as a cleaning lady in some local estate. Playing among the sailors and harbor laborers the Rowe brothers learnt many wild stories of faraway lands and as they grew up, they also learnt to fight while taking on the youngest of the crews of the ships. Cáel became especially interested when he saw one older sailor setting poisonous traps for the rats on the ships and docks and soon started to follow man around. The man was somewhat taken in by the attention boy showed for his work and soon started to teach him about the different kind of poisons he used. Later on, when Cáel had learnt all the man could teach him, the old sailor introduced the boy for a woman who worked as pest controller around the city. Woman took boy in as her helper a little reluctantly at first but when the boy proved to be fast learner and hard worker she slowly started to teach him her trade. As the years went by, it became more apparent for the Cáel that the Woman (as she was called by everyone), did not only take care of the traditional vermin like mice, rats and such but also of… lice of more intelligent kind. This also she taught for Cáel who found this discipline as fascinating, if not even more so, than that of ordinary vermin poisons. Cáels father died during the blight, leaving his family struggling for upkeep. Cáels mother, Aideen, was a proud woman and refused to be burden for anyone and so her oldest son took it upon himself to help raise funds. He soon learnt how easy it was sneak up to the houses he had visited with the Woman, locating anything of value during their stay and coming back during nights to retrieve them. The Woman, whose keen eyes saw everything did not comment on this save from warning Cáel from getting caught. She probably saw this as another stage of her teachings for the time when Cáel would be sneaking into houses to retrieve someone’s life instead of wretched gold. During that time, the Woman also directed the teenaged boy to work and practice with few mercenaries, where he learnt the skills needed in more direct conflict. As the Woman grew older, Cáel was more often sent to take care of the most mundane tasks like driving off the rat colonies from the basements of the noble estates and such. Work like this often took weeks and needed utmost care, not least because rats would have soon repopulate the basements, were even couple let alive. During one of such tasks, Cáel found small colony of mice from the local kennel, he spend few days among the Mabari hounds and kennelists, taking care not to poison the noble beasts by mistake. There were very few other people around, save from kennel workers who walked up and down the corridors and so Cáel found himself speaking mostly to the Hounds. During that time, he got into fight with one of the kennelist over some coin that had gone missing. The Kenneller attacked Cáel, only to be driven off of him by one of the young hounds which apparently sometime during his stay had imprinted on him. Kennel Master was furious about this, and took Cáel before the City guards. Luckily for Cáel, the sergeant Kylon was righteous man who, despite the angry demands of the Kennel Master, did not imprison nor execute him, as technically it was not the elf’s fault to have the dog imprint on him. Cáel did, however, get whipped and banned from working in the estate or kennels again by the Kennel master. The dog, now his for a life, followed him, giving him new mouth to feed in times when money was tight already. He named it Bumblebee. Nowadays Cáel mostly works in the Woman’s stead; her being too old to really take care of tasks they are appointed. Lately there have been more assignments with mercenaries. He lives in small apartment outside of Alienage, close to his teacher with Bumblebee and visits his family from time to time, leaving small portions of money for his mother and brother during each visit. If his mother knows how he makes his living, she does not comment on it, and he does not tell. Appearance Fairly light skinned by nature, Cáel is slightly tanned and weather-burn like one would expect from a person working outdoors. He keeps his dark brown hair tied back in what some people jokingly call housewife's knot. To Cáel, the priority is to just keep the hair from falling over his dull-green eyes. He has light brownish tattoo over his forehead and under his right eye, a memento for his supposedly Dalish grandmother; to a person rather than for the old ways of which Cáel doesn't know any more than others of his kin born to the city life, and so it is in no way Dalish concept. He has another tattoo spreading over his left shoulder and torso (thought it leads rather low near his abdomen). Cáel wears cheap, green earring on his right ear, and his hands bear signs of acidic burns -reminder of experiment gone awry- littering his hands, and in smaller measure his arms up to elbows, with pale and reddish burn marks. To cover this, Cáel usually wears leather gloves even without armor. Personality Cáel is reserved around Shem, having grown up in the Alienage. He keeps suspicious eye on them until such a time they prove themselves for him or fail to do so. He has almost magpie-like fascination with beautiful, glittering objects, be it jewelry or weaponry. His trust is hard to gain, especially if shown any signs of sexual interest, and Cáel believes most shem who make moves towards him are just curious about laying with an elf, not about him. Such an attempts are met with laugh, disbelief and jokes if he likes the other party and cool disdain if not. Cáel has a somewhat dark sense of humor and some of his remarks tend to be quite sardonic. He tries to avoid responsibilities aside from what he must do to provide for his family, and when encountering resistance he'd rather find a way around it than meets it head-first. Surprising to many, Cáel is religious, visiting the Chantry whenever he has a chance. Templars and Mages are all the same for him; both possible threats, but he does think that Mages ought to get trained, other vice they are in danger to hurt others, just like a child handling a weapon. He does not regard Apostates very high (not that he'd ever met one), thinking they are slacking in their training which is even less acceptable as King Alistair granted autonomy for the Ferelden circle and so it is not prison guarded by the Templars anymore flacking this argument of Mages even more. He likes to keep this opinion to himself thought, yet again avoiding the conflict it might cause. Abilities Dual Weapon (Apprentice) Even in more direct battle, Cáel places most of his trust on his poisons, these times applied over the blades of sharp daggers he wields in each of his hands. Still an apprentice on the finest details and maneuvers of the weapon wielding, he can deal preforating attack on the weak points of his target, attacking them from behind, as well as unleash an unfogiving chain of slashes upon them. Poison-Making (Master) Under the tutorage of the Woman, Cáel has mastered the dark arts of the poisons, giving him skills needed to brew up even the most rare, dangerous extracts of killing that are known to man. This skill makes him dangerous foe on the battle, despite his lesser skills with actual physical attacks, seeing you never know what you'll be subjected even with the slightest cut from his sharp blades. Poisoner (Adept) Killing his opponents in leisure is what Cáel has been trained to do from early adolescence. This requires not only vast and formidable knowledge of poisons but also a patience and tactical eye to know when to strike -and when not. Despite of sometimes seeming to lack the last two, Cáel has been managed to modeled into a passable practicioner of this specilization under the tutorage of the founder and sole master of its dark art. Years of tutorage have taught him how to slowly weaken his target and how to hide in almost plain sight, and the continuous exposure to the poisons have granted him some resistance to certain types of it. Scoundrel (Apprentice) While Cáel doesn't hesitate for a moment to take advantage from the weakneses of his opponents, having just started to actually encage into more direct combats, he is still an apprentice in noticing the signs. He can, however, deal damage on the opponents that are not paying direct attention on him, and knows that the fair fight often doesn't ensure the victory as well as attacking the enemies unable to defend themselves. Stealing (Adept) Growing up in the Alienage is never easy. His family struggling for upkeep, Cáel learnt fast to make money in any means necessary, his swift fingers finding heavy purses of the rich merchants with ease and vaults in the houses located during his inspections on the pest-control. Adept in the art of stealing, Cáel is so quik-fingered that only the most cunning, vigilant people notice when he frees them from portion of their riches. Subterfuge (Adept) Direct attack is for those with less agility and more force. Cáel prefers to gain upperhand in the fight through deception and tricky maneuvering before using poison to end the suffering of the poor target. Adept in the art of subterfuges he knows how to withraw suddenly, move fast and silent in the shadows and ambush his target from hiding. Recent Events The latest job he got from the Woman did not go as planned, at all. Insted of just intimidating the Antivan gang that was trying to overtake the docks, Cael was forced to slaughter them to their own warehouse. The elven child taken as hostage did not survive and returning him to his parents at the Alienage lead to the poisoner being barred from the elven neighbourhood by the Bann Shianni. The events have awaken the young elf's selfdoupt, making him question the choises and the direction of his current life. In the aftermath of the job gone awry, Cáel had to dodge the suspicions of his mother and younger brother. Somehow managing to assure at least his mother, he learnt that they were planning to leave the Denerim and try to start new life in the lands which King Alistair had granted to Dalish elves. Finding himself unable to give in for their pleas of coming along, Cáel is now last of his family to remain in the city. Relationships The Woman of Denerim The Woman is in no doupt the person who has molded Cáel's life and personality most out of all of the few people who know him. Taking up an apprenticeship with her at the young age, Cáel has learned most of her secrets and skills, making him efficient poisoner. He respects and admires the woman as rolemodel, even if he'd sooner drink up one his own venoms than to admit it outloud. As the Woman has grown older, Cáel has been taking care of more and more of the oddjobs she gives him. He follows her aging with worried eye, feeling the change slowly approaching. A change he is not at all sure he enjoys. Lately, the work he has been doing for the Woman has distanced Cael from his mother and brother. The current episode with the Antivan gang especially has made it even harder to keep his life as a poisoner apart from his relationships in the Alienage. Ívarr Rowe Cáel's father was a proud, gentle man of Dalish heritage from his own mother's side. He was a devoted Andrastian - a trait he rooted deep into both of his sons- and never refused anyone asking for help. He died during the fifth Blight, when he did not receive healing from the mages while being wounded, leaving his family to struggle for upkeep. Ultimately his departure was the thing that led Cáel into more criminal route in his life as well as strenghted his mistrust into shem justice towards the elfs. Aideen Rowe Proud woman who would never see the day of being burden to anyone, Cáels mother worked as a cleaning lady in the nearby estates before her husband's departure. After they lost the income from Ívarr's work in the docks, Aideen struggled to upkeep even somekind of mainantance for her two sons. She worked all days and often late into night. Seeing how tired she became, Cáel took it upon himself to help and raise funds for the family's livelihood. For many years, she has believed that Cáel works as pestcontroller around the city, closing her ears from the whispered rumors about his son's mentor, untill one day, Cáel showed up at the Alienage, covered in blood and carrying a body of one of the kids of the Alienage... Lónan Rowe Almost fife years junior to his brother, Lónan -or "Feathers", as Cáel calls him- never shared his brother's facination over the poisons. When Cáel took up apprenticeship with the Woman, the previously close brothers started to slowly but surely drift apart. Lónan will soon become of age and presumingly get matched up with a nice girl. He followed their father's footsteps in working at the docks. Even when he is in a ways more naïve to the world, facinated by the stories of Dalish elfs, heroic tales of the Grey Wardens and far-away lands, Lónan knows his brother well enought to realize that whatever work he does around the city isn't strictly legal. Upon unspoken agreement between the brothers, he never mentioned his thoughts to their mother. Redirect Main Page Site Backstory Category:Elves Category:Ferelden Category:Original Category:Rogue